Context Is for Kings (episode)
}} Michael Burnham finds herself aboard the USS Discovery, where she quickly realizes things are not as they seem, including the mysterious Captain Gabriel Lorca. Summary Teaser It is November 2256. Six months have passed since the start of the and Michael Burnham was court martialed and sent to prison. Burnham along with three other prisoners, Psycho, , and , are on board the shuttle SPT 21 being transferred to Tellun. According to Stone, the reason they are being transferred there is because a pocket of dilithium went piezolectric, causing the mine to be ripped apart at the bottom and killing fifty convicts. Act One Act Two Act Three Act Four Memorable quotes "Andorians are cold in all the wrong places." :- Psycho "My cousin was on the ''Europa when it went down. She and eight thousand others are dead because of you." "''Eight thousand, one hundred and eighty-six." :- Psycho and Michael Burnham "Let's make it eight thousand, one hundred and eighty-seven." :- Cold before attacking Michael Burnham in the mess hall "I despise lurkers." :- Lieutenant Paul Stamets to Michael Burnham, after catching her lurking behind him "I'll call you Mickey; I think that's a little more approachable." :- Cadet Silvia Tilly to Michael Burnham "No matter how deep in space you are, always feel like you can see home. Don't you think? Maybe it's just me. Forgive the lighting. The lack thereof. A recent battle injury. There's nothing they can do if I want to keep my own eyes, and I do. I have to suffer light change slowly. I like to think it makes me mysterious. No?" :- Captain Gabriel Lorca s introductory words to Michael Burnham "Captain Gabriel Lorca. Welcome to ''Discovery." :- Gabriel Lorca, welcoming Michael Burnham to Discovery "Until your vessel's repaired, you'll be assigned to quarters and put to work. I'm not a chauffeur. There's no free rides on my ship. You were once a Starfleet officer. I will use you, or anything else I can, to achieve my mission." :- Gabriel Lorca to Michael Burnham "...but this is not a democracy." :- Gabriel Lorca, replying to Lt. Paul Stamets "We are creating a new way to fly." :- Gabriel Lorca, explaining his mission to Michael Burnham "Hold tight. Blink: you're in Ilari. Blink: the moons of Andoria. Blink: you missed Romulus. All those planets, all those places, all those species seen and yet to be seen. And you're home like it never happened." :- Gabriel Lorca showing Michael Burnham the spore drive "Universal law is for lackeys. Context is for kings." :- Gabriel Lorca Background information * According to Aaron Harberts, this episode was essentially the "pilot" of Star Trek: Discovery, with the previous episodes, and , forming a "prologue" of sorts. ( ) Cast * This episode marks the first appearance of series regulars Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), and Jason Isaacs (Gabriel Lorca). * Despite being credited, Shazad Latif (Ash Tyler) does not appear in this episode. * Conrad Pla, Elias Toufexis, and Grace Lynn Kung, who respectively play prisoners , and Psycho in this episode, all play or have played roles in , another science fiction TV series. * Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) and Milton Richter (Christopher Russell) are named only in the episode's credits and appear only briefly in the episode itself, with non-speaking roles. Continuity * The events of this episode take place six months after the events of . * This episode marks the first appearance of the starship . * Michael Burnham mentions Suus Mahna, a form of Vulcan martial arts. It is a technique first seen and used by T'Pol in . * Michael Burnham confirms that 8,186 lives have been lost in the war since the Battle of the Binary Stars. * Straal mentions winning the Zee-Magnees Prize, an award won by both Doctor Richard Daystrom from and Doctor Ira Graves from . * Michael Burnham mentions her foster mother Amanda by name, and alludes to Spock without naming him. * This is the earliest-set episode of any Star Trek series in which a warp-capable Starfleet shuttle is seen. * Michael Burnham is referred to as "Starfleet's first mutineer". Starfleet mutineers were previously depicted in such episodes as and . However, Burnham is the first Starfleet mutineer to be shown being convicted for mutiny. * During Lorca's demonstration of the mycelial network travel, a planet with a Preserver obelisk, Starbase 11, and the Janus VI mining facility can be seen. * Burnham recalls that Amanda Grayson read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to her and Spock when they were children. Spock mentioned his mother's fondness for Lewis Carroll's works in after noting that the Queen of Hearts is a character from Alice Through the Looking Glass, the book's sequel. * The multi-word title of this episode is lifted directly from a line spoken by Lorca. Few Star Trek episodes do this, being one notable example. * The is destroyed by the Discovery at the end of the episode with photon torpedoes after a catastrophic failure causes the deaths of the entire crew. Similarly, the destroyed the with torpedoes after the entire crew was killed by an infectious aging disease in . * Stamets complains that Starfleet co-opted his research "not for truth, ... but for war" hints at the morally ambiguous atmosphere aboard the Discovery, because, as Picard said in , "the first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth". * The code that Stamets gives Burnham to fix has been identified by some as being Microsoft Windows coding, specifically decompiled code for the Stuxnet virus. https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/10/3/16412372/star-trek-discovery-cbs-windows-code-command-line * Lorca's laboratory the bodies of two Cardassian voles, a tribble cut open, and Gorn skeleton. The episode is set before official first contact with the Gorn, but the skeleton was nonetheless confirmed as such by writer Aaron Harberts on . Reception and aftermath * Production history * : Title publicly revealed * : Premiere airdate on CBS All Access * 2 October 2017: International release date (outside Canada and the USA) Links and references Starring * Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham * Doug Jones as Saru * Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets * Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly ;and * Jason Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca Guest starring * Rekha Sharma as Ellen Landry Co-stars * Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer * Julianne Grossman as Discovery computer voice * Grace Lynn Kung as Psycho * Devon McDonald as Engineering officer * Sara Mitich as Airiam * Oyin Oladejo as Joann Owosekun * Conrad Pla as * Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Shuttle pilot * Christopher Russell as Milton Richter * Saad Siddiqui as Straal * Elias Toufexis as * Tasia Valenza as Shenzhou computer voice Uncredited co-stars * Unknown as Klingon * Unknown as Kowski * Unknown as Shuttle SPT 21 Pilot Stunt doubles and stand-ins References 2244; Above top secret; ; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; allergy; Andoria; Andorians; Archanis sector; assembly line; astromycologist; autopilot; basidia; basidiosac rupture; Battle of the Binary Stars; bay door; bat'leth; battle drill; The Beatles; Beta Quadrant; black alert; biochemistry; ; biological weapon; bloom failure; blueberry; boarding party; breath print; Cardassian vole; ; chauffeur; Chiefowitz; ; ; containment field; court martial; court martial transcript; cover band; cultivation bay; curfew; data cruncher; day shift; democracy; dilithium; ; Disco 1; door; ecosystem; electricity; encryption; engineering laboratory; engineering test bay; ; Everett; EV suit; Exterminator; face; Federation blue; food synthesizer; fortune cookie; funeral; Galactic Time; garden; gene expression; Geneva Protocol of 1928; Geneva Protocol of 2155; ; ; Gorn; ; hack; handcuffs; helical trauma; ; inch; Janus VI; Jefferies tube; Klingons; Klingon space; ; logic; Magnus; matter synthesis; Mempa sector; mission statement; mutiny; mycelial network; mycelium spores; Ordnance; oxygen; panspermia; panties; phaser pulse rifle; Piezoelectric; pilot; polyester; Powers that Be; Preservers obelisk; prison shuttle; Prototaxites stellaviatori; proximity alert; Psycho's cousin; Qo'noS sector; quantum astrophysics; quantum level; rabbit hole; reaction cube; roads; Romulus; safety tether; ; ; shield replacement unit; shushing; shuttle manifest; sister ship; site-to-site transport; snoring; spiral; special needs; Species GS54; speech; Speirin; Spock; spore; spore drive; SPT 21; Starbase 11; Starbase 18; Starfleet Academy; storm; Suus Mahna; tea; Tellun; temp; test cube; tribble; tunnel; universal laws; viscoelastic polyurethane foam; ; Vulcans; Vulcan Science Academy; well; Zee-Magnees Prize External link * |next= }} de:Context is for Kings Category:DIS episodes